One of our colleagues, Dr. George Perry, gave a recent TED talk on “Alzheimer’s”, which is embedded below. In it, George establishes the age-related nature of AD, and discusses some of the fundamental problems with therapies targeting amyloid – specifically that the pathology we currently “attack” with our drugs may in fact represent a protective response (a position Peter and I have long advocated).

George told us that he referenced The Myth of Alzheimer’s in the Q&A portion of the talk, and expressed that he feels increasing affinity with our ideas. This is certainly high praise from a researcher of George’s stature. More importantly, his talk on the illustrious TED stage signals the fact that new ideas about AD are getting out into the mainstream through increasingly diverse channels, which is an auspicious trend.

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But I still think that there is a very good argument to be made in favor of the disease model and against the “brain aging” argument:

1. Not everyone who gets old, even very old, gets AD;
2. People who are young get AD;
3. Even though each case of AD has unique clinical features, there is a relentless course of deterioration that characterizes almost all cases;

There are many cases of diseases in medicine the ultimate causes of which resisted identification for long, long periods of time. Take stomach ulcers as an example. They have been around for thousands of years, and yet it was only relatively recently that most cases were discovered to be caused by a bacterium — specifically, Helicobacter pylori.

I just don’t know of any medical professionals (and I have talked to many in connection with my sister’s case) who believe that AD is simply “brain aging”. They say the opposite, in fact.

But no one knows, of course. About what AD really is.

However, a lot of us know everything we would prefer never to have known about how AD can destroy your loved ones and tear your heart out.

So, to those who are dedicated to fight it — doctors, drug companies, nurses, families — our prayers are with you.